Success and the IT Factor Congratulations! You are about to have an opportunity to change your life. But it is up to you to implement this material, for the changes you desire to be realized. In this Results Source course, Success and the IT Factor, you ll learn how your predominant mental focus attracts what you attain and achieve in your life. You ll learn how to use this power to improve your sales performance and results as well as how to improve many other aspects of your life. Results Source is a full service training and development company with expertise in residential development and personal empowerment. Tamara Lynch, president of Results Source, is an author, coach and speaker and brings a unique perspective to personal empowerment and sales success. Tammy blends her seventeen years experience in real estate sales, development and construction, with her passion and study of personal empowerment and the law of attraction. Tammy has been assisting and/or developing training materials and courses since the late 1990ʹs. Her specialty has been residential sales and marketing, construction and business management. Additionally, Tammy is a national speaker and instructor and her area of expertise includes mastering the art of selling new homes, goals and achievement, personal empowerment, change management, sales success, and psychographics, in addition to residential and economic market trends. Tammyʹs passion is to assist others in attaining the results and success they desire and she lives her life investing in the Universal Law of Reciprocity, ʺThe Universe will return to you in direct proportion in which you give.ʺ As a Florida Certified Building Contactor and Real Estate Broker, and with the experience of running a multimillion dollar real estate development and building company, Tammyʹs expertise is invaluable to developers and home builders.
As an author of several self help books, Tammyʹs capability not only appeals to those in the real estate industry, but those who desire to empower their associates, deliver impactful insight, and inspire them to greatness. All Rights Reserved Page 1 of 18
Table of Contents Required tools: Participants are to bring a photograph of a loved one. 1.1 Success is not a Destination 1.2 Visualization Skills 1.3 Beliefs and Achievement 1.4 Plan Your Success 1.5 Constructive versus Destructive Thoughts and Visions 1.6 You are the Gatekeeper 1.6.1 Your Will 1.7 Using Mental Imagery 1.8 Practicing Visualization 1.9 Self Talk 1.10 Cultivating IT 1.10.1 Outer World and Inner World Harmony 1.10.2 Becoming IT 1.11 Conclusion All Rights Reserved Page 2 of 18
Unit 1: Success and the IT Factor 1.1 Success is not a destination Success is not a destination but a journey toward the accomplishment of predetermined, worthwhile goals. The journey in sales isn t about learning basic skills. This is what it is all about: Being a change agent and striving for continuous improvement. Education and growth which deals with the whole person, rather than just sales techniques. Your ability to go deep inside yourself to understand personalities, relationships with others, current circumstances, and your ability to create your destiny. 1.2 Visualization Skills You may be surprised to learn that becoming the best sales associate you can be does not only include mastering presentation and demonstration skills, but also visualization skills. Visualizing success is a precursor to achieving results in sales. It is a tool to aid you in controlling your thoughts and altering your beliefs to be success oriented and to put you in control of your work and your life. Regardless of the current housing market, interest rates, energy costs, or the overall economy, by controlling your thoughts and applying mental imagery and the theories, techniques, and strategies outlined in this book you can make the next decade in the industry your best ever. The people who get on in this world are the ones who get up and look for the circumstances they want and, if they can t find them, they make them. All Rights Reserved Page 3 of 18
George Bernard Shaw, Playwright 1.3 Beliefs and Achievement Everything you accomplish is governed by the following three immutable principles: Your beliefs are consistent with who you are. Who you are is shaped by what you think. You achieve only if you believe you can. Your mental attitude and focus determine your success or lack of it. Define your purpose and focus on your goal and you will begin to plant the seeds of your success. The most powerful tool at your disposal is your imagination. Use it to reach your desired destiny. If you can dream and imagine, you can create without limitation. You must develop constructive beliefs consciously and continually. Eventually the habit of focusing on positive thoughts, feelings, and outcomes will become automatic and as natural as breathing. As a result, you will succeed in sales, enjoy it more, and have the life you want. 1.4 Plan Your Success As in any profession, success in sales demands planning. The first step in the planning process is to decide who you want to become and what you want to achieve. Do you want to be the best new home sales associate in your company? Do you want to be the best in your market? How many sales is the best? What do you want to earn? What exactly do you want to accomplish? Once you have established your goal, visualizing your plan to get there will help you eventually reach it. In your imagination, you have no limitations, except for those you self impose. Your power to think is unlimited, and therefore, your power to create the vision of your perfect reality is also unlimited. You must All Rights Reserved Page 4 of 18
throw out all preconceived notions of what can and cannot be, and picture yourself executing perfectly every time. All the breaks you need in life wait within your imagination. Imagination is the workshop of your mind, capable of turning mind energy into accomplishment and wealth. Napoleon Hill Author Think and Grow Rich 1.5 Constructive versus Destructive Thoughts and Visions Imagine that if you think, believe, and expect a result, it will materialize. If you expect to be successful, you act as if you are successful, and your actions create success. A destructive thought, on the other hand, is your personal devil. Like a germ, it attacks from the inside and can weaken your resolve and interfere with your success. Your thoughts and beliefs have shaped and will continue to govern your life. If you are not happy, then you have adopted beliefs that are destructive or are not aligned with your true desires, perhaps without even realizing it. You have used your power of thought, if unintentionally, to prevent you from attaining your true desires. Practice listening to your emotions. If you feel bad about a situation, that feeling is rooted in inconsistency between your thoughts and your true desires. The bad feeling is a siren warning you that danger is approaching. 1.6 You are the Gatekeeper You are the gatekeeper that protects your mind from negative, destructive thoughts. Replace them with positive, successful, empowering thoughts by practicing positive self talk, visualization, and mental imagery. All Rights Reserved Page 5 of 18
1.6.1 Overcoming Fear One of the most destructive emotions you can have is fear, because fear is the root of all other negative emotions. When you replace fear with a more positive emotion, such as love, your reality will change significantly. When you are fearful, think courageously. If you find yourself dwelling on what you don t have, retrain your mind to think of what you re grateful for or what you have in abundance. 1.6.2 Your Will Are you willing to release your negative feelings? Will is the predominant factor in your success or failure in any venture. Once you have decided that you are willing to give up your fear, you have freed yourself to change your life immediately or sometime in the future. Make no mistake; this transformation is a matter of personal choice. If you decide now to change your mind, you can. EXERCISE: If you think you can do a thing or if you think you can t do a thing, you are right. Henry Ford a) Close your eyes and take a deep breath. b) Consider a thought you have had recently that would be considered destructive. c) When you have this destructive thought present, think about the underlying fear for just a moment d) Then count slowly from one to three. e) When you get to three, release the breath and imagine that as you exhale the fear is leaving your mind and body along with your breath. f) Open your eyes, take a deep breath, and imagine, as you draw in air, a pleasurable experience or situation. Let that sensation fill your body and mind as the fresh air fills your lungs. You can control your thoughts. By determining what your mind and body holds on to and what they let go, you also control what to let enter or keep out of your life day to day. When you replace destructive thoughts of fear, lacking, and All Rights Reserved Page 6 of 18
limitation with thoughts of courage, power, self reliance, and confidence, your world will change. 1.7 Using Mental Imagery Vivid mental imagery is really the first step to accomplishing anything in life, whether your goal is personal or professional. Any new product, service, or invention is first imagined in the mind of its creator. Any great athlete or performer imagines their perfect time, execution, or performance prior to the event. Any great architect imagines a beautiful structure prior to sketching it on paper. I never hit a shot even in practice without having a sharp in focus picture of it in my head. It s like a color movie. First, I see the ball where I want it to finish, nice and white and sitting up high on the bright green grass. Then the scene quickly changes, and I see the ball going there: its path, trajectory, and shape, even its behavior on landing. Then there s a sort of fade out, and the next scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn the previous images into reality. Only at the end of this short private Hollywood spectacular do I select a club and step up to the ball. Jack Nicklaus Professional Golfer The subconscious mind does not differentiate between fiction and reality. Just thinking about an action creates the neural pathways in your brain as if you were actually doing it. 1 Therefore, you must have a clear, vivid picture of what you wish to achieve as a new home sales associate. Rather than focusing on how you will achieve your goal, focus first on the end result. Hold that image in your mind. Savor the feeling of enjoying your results. All Rights Reserved Page 7 of 18
Imagine that you have already achieved your dream and are now living it. You can motivate yourself each day to consciously become the professional you want to be. Conversely, if you constantly envision a bad end to what you perceive is a bad housing market, you will lose a sense of urgency with your prospects and the bad market will become a self fulfilling prophesy. Your pessimism is the roadblock to achieving results. Even if a qualified prospect walks in your door, you won t recognize them because you ve convinced yourself that there are no qualified prospects. Instead, visualize perfect presentations and a wealth of qualified prospects, and guess what? Your presentations will improve. Better presentations will lead to improved results. You will treat everyone as a qualified prospect; many of them will be; and many will buy your homes. Don t let your prospects perceptions or prejudices cloud your belief that you are selling a wonderful product in a desirable community. Imagine that you have unlimited resources and the power to attract anything and everything you desire. Imagine that you control every situation or circumstance in your life and there is nothing beyond your control. Now, stop imagining, and believe! 1.8 Practicing Visualization Can you visualize? Or are you one of those that have trouble with visualization. When you close your eyes, is all you see darkness? Many people find visualization difficult, but that s only because they are not familiar with it. As with tennis, music, or any other skill, visualization becomes easier with practice. EXERCISE: Close your eyes. Picture someone special in your life right now. What does this person look like? All Rights Reserved Page 8 of 18
What color are their hair and eyes? What are they wearing? Can you describe them? If you can, then you already have the ability to visualize. You just need to practice and apply this skill daily. Visualizing is much easier when you are completely relaxed. So if you have difficulty visualizing, schedule time where you can relax and focus. I have found that immediately before I go to sleep is a good time to practice visualization. I actually schedule 20 to 30 minutes at night before I go to sleep to visualize the immediate and long term future. Some people include this in their daily meditation as I do. I picture the next day as well as the satisfaction of living my perfect life. EXERCISE: Select a blank space on the wall. Mentally draw a black horizontal line about six inches long. See the line as plainly as if it were painted on the wall. Now mentally draw two perpendicular lines to intersect this horizontal line. Then draw another horizontal line to make a square. Draw a circle within the square. Place a point in the center of the circle and draw the point toward you. You will see a cone on a square base. Change the color of your lines from black to white, then red, then yellow. Now change the color to orange and rotate the cone so that you can now picture it standing on its base. If you can do this, you are making excellent progress and will soon be able to concentrate on any situation you desire. Eventually, with practice, you will begin to see more vivid pictures, and you can substitute this simple picture for pictures with more detail. Now let s move on to something more advanced. PHOTO EXERCISE: Take out your photograph. All Rights Reserved Page 9 of 18
Study the photograph carefully. Make a mental note of each feature Include the color and shape of their eyes. Close your eyes and completely relax. Now, see your loved one in your mind but with the same level of detail. Can you picture them? If so, that s awesome! You are well on your way to being able to use the power of visualization. If you re not there yet, keep practicing. 1.9 Self Talk People often say that motivation doesn t last. Well, neither does bathing that s why we recommend it daily. Zig Ziglar Best Selling Author Proper mental imagery and self talk is a daily requirement. They will keep you focused and moving toward your goals. Self talk, or your thoughts about yourself, is the most important words you will ever hear. What you say to yourself is considered truth to your subconscious mind, and what you consider as truth shapes your beliefs and ultimately your actions. This is one of the reasons why affirmations are so powerful. Recognize that your current reality is merely a product of the past and that success is a process, rather than an event. This process begins with you envisioning having all of the prospects you desire, experiencing customers enjoying your presentations, and enjoying an abundance of sales as a result. As you imagine everything going your way, you will develop into the person in your perfect dream. Your life will correspond to this vision not because of providence but because you will be working hard to turn your vision into reality. By envisioning your perfect reality and practicing strategies to achieve success every day, you will improve not only your sales performance, but your quality of life. All Rights Reserved Page 10 of 18
1.10 Cultivating IT What exactly is the IT Factor? When someone has IT, they believe that failure is not an option and that they control whether they will be successful or not. They have a burning desire to achieve their goals, and they don t allow their current circumstances to interfere with their ultimate success. They know they can create better circumstances. Do you have the it factor? Fast forward from my first 6 sales with U.S. Home and my early career success challenging the power lines myth. Later, as a division president for a production home builder, I could easily distinguish between sales associates who were controlling their lives with constructive beliefs and positive thoughts, and those who were not. My vice presidents and I said the former group had the it factor. As a matter of fact, I would conduct all second interviews of sales associate applicants to determine whether they had it because whenever we hired an associate with it, they would have superior results compared with other associates. Any definite chief aim that is deliberately fixed in the mind and held there, with determination to realize it, finally saturates the entire subconscious mind until it automatically influences the physical action of the body toward the attainment of that purpose Napoleon Hill Best Selling Author, Think and Grow Rich You are empowered to create your reality. But in order to be successful, you must first define what success means to you. What do you want from life? What do you want to accomplish in your career? Do you want to outpace the market? Do you want to always outperform your competitors? All Rights Reserved Page 11 of 18
You can do these things and more, regardless of housing economics. Your own thoughts, beliefs, and actions contribute more to your success or failure than the housing market or your competitors do. Therefore, train your mind to create success oriented thoughts and those thoughts will birth beliefs that will help you achieve your heart s desires. 1.10.1 Outer World and Inner World Harmony Some scientists believe that humans use only about 10% of our brain s capacity. Have you ever wondered what you could achieve if you had the ability to use 100% of your brain s capacity? Most of your brain s capacity is in the subconscious mind, which has power way beyond what most of us realize. Recognize this power and learn how to use it. Have you ever felt as if you were on a roll and everything was going your way? Does it ever occur to you that those who have (money, power, success, happiness, health, love) only seem to get more? On the other hand, have you known people who never seem to get a break, who always seem like they have a cloud over their head? Ultimately, we tend to get more of whatever is going on in our lives, whether it is positive or negative. When you understand why this is true, you will be able to change your circumstances from being more negative to being mostly positive. Your life reflects your beliefs. You shape those beliefs by interpreting what you observe every day. In other words, if you observe everything going your way, you tend to believe that everything goes your way, and you draw positive people, situations, and things toward you. If, on the other hand, you never seem to have enough (money, power, success, happiness, health, love), then you may begin to believe that you will never have enough, and you probably won t because your negative attitude will attract more negativity into your life. To sit back and let fate play its hand out and never influence it is not the way man was meant to operate. All Rights Reserved Page 12 of 18
John Glenn Astronaut If you were guaranteed to always be successful, to have the same power as the most powerful people you can think of, and to possess the abundance of the most affluent, what would you do, change, or act upon? The awesome reality is that you already have this power of influence. You are using this power now. It is determining the outcomes of your life, so if your present reality or circumstances are not what you desire, then you are not using it effectively. Perhaps you are not even conscious that you have this power and are using it at all. Your thoughts create your beliefs which continually shape the person that you are. In due course, your expectations create actions and circumstances that bring about a result consistent with your thoughts every time. In other words, your outer world and your inner thoughts are one. Therefore, everything will not go your way if you are always in a bad mood. Similarly, there is no way for everything to result in failure when you re in a great mood. Your outer world will harmonize with the way you feel, or your inner world. Have you ever had a day where everything went your way? Did you feel great because everything went your way? Or did everything go your way because you felt great? While we may tend to believe the former, the latter is the more likely explanation. The circumstances or situations that happen to you are really occurring because of you. Understand that hoping for a result is different from being certain that something will happen. If you say, I ll try or I ll give it a shot, you probably won t reach your goal because you don t believe that you can. Instead, you must have certain faith in the desired result. When you decide that you will accomplish your goal and know that nothing will prevent you from achieving it, when you expect a result as sure as the sun rising in the morning, All Rights Reserved Page 13 of 18
then you will attain it. This same principle can be applied in every aspect of your life. Fake it, until you make it. Tom Hopkins Author Official Guide to Success In other words, every day you are creating your own reality. You are an actor in a play that you write, direct, and will review. By understanding this basic principle, you design your own reality and, therefore, determine whether you succeed or fail. Everyone has a built in goal striving mechanism. It operates as a success mechanism or a failure mechanism, depending on whether we feed it success goals or failure goals. Dr. Maxwell Maltz Author Psycho Cybernetics In sales, your beliefs either can construct a positive outcome or destroy any possibility of success. If you re selling in a community that you believe is in a less desirable part of town, you may focus upon the drawbacks of the surrounding neighborhoods and then begin to believe the negative script that you have created. A prospect who visits your sales office has not ruled out the location, obviously, but you will communicate your doubts to them even if you don t realize you are doing it. Instead, by focusing on the community s assets its proximity to downtown offices, cultural amenities, and shopping, benefits that none of your competitors offer you can build rapport with prospects who want the convenience that only your neighborhood has. Focusing on the benefits of your community will result in more sales. All Rights Reserved Page 14 of 18
Let s relate inconsistency between thoughts and desires to new homes sales. Attaining your sales goal will be impossible if you keep focusing on the bad market, or if you keep thinking that your sales goal is unachievable. Your negative thoughts sap your motivation to prospect for buyers or brainstorm creative solutions to low conversion rates. However, when your beliefs say Yes I can! you will attract customers with the positive attitude and creative ideas that emanate from those beliefs. 1.10.2 Becoming IT Repeat the following steps daily to create an attitude of success and ensure that you have the it factor: Set Goals. Define your goals, write them down, and review them daily. How much money do you desire? How many sales and closings do you need to have to achieve your financial goal? By when do you intend to achieve this? Be Proactive. Recognize that all circumstances start with you. You can no longer blame or credit anyone other than yourself for your current circumstances. Eliminate the glass half empty philosophy and always find the best in everything and everyone. Control Your Thoughts. Do not allow disempowering thoughts to linger. Immediately substitute a disempowering thought with one that is empowering. If you begin to think that because the market is slow and it is out of season that you are likely not to sell anything this weekend, immediately change that thought. Even though these circumstances exist, there are still people buying and it is with you in which they are going to buy. Now isn t that a much more empowering thought? You must believe that success is guaranteed. Visualize Success. See yourself enjoying the success you ve attained by achieving the goals you ve set. Visualize the home you live in, the car you drive, the clothes you wear, the awards you receive, and the loving relationships that surround you. See yourself at a company event being honored for the top sales award. See yourself at a charity auction donating significantly to your favorite cause. See yourself at a dinner party in your new home with your new car in the driveway. All Rights Reserved Page 15 of 18
Follow a Plan. Set systems in place to ensure that you do the most important things first. Then be disciplined and follow them. Spend your time and money only on things that give you the desired return. For example, obtain the education you need and get the CSP or MIRM designation that you know will help you to attain your goals. Don t procrastinate. There is no better time to do it than now. Repeat Affirming Words. Make daily affirmations a part of your routine and your vocabulary. Add at least five of your own to the following list and repeat them aloud each morning and night: I love my work. I am extremely efficient and get more done in less time than most people. I follow through with tasks and take responsibility. I own my failures and my accomplishments. I make a difference. It feels great when I do my job well. I am passionate in my work and the money naturally follows. I am grateful for my success. I always work with and for wonderful people. There are no limitations to what I can accomplish. My thoughts control my beliefs and my beliefs create my destiny. I can be what I decide to be. At the back of this Module, the IT Factor Daily Worksheet can be used as a tool to assist you in controlling your thoughts and beliefs. The blank lines are for you to write your own thoughts, visions and affirmations. Complete this form and read it daily, at least once in the morning and once in the evening. It is good to read this immediately prior to going to sleep so that your mind can continue to focus upon these thoughts and visions all night long. 1.11 Conclusion By understanding the power of positive thinking, you can supplant any negative situation with a positive one. You can have abundance instead of poverty, wisdom instead of ignorance, pleasure instead of pain, and freedom instead of oppression. You can attract anything that you desire and which you have the All Rights Reserved Page 16 of 18
discipline to pursue. Be open to possibilities. Inspired thought, gut feeling, and intuition can help you discern opportunity. Then, when opportunity knocks, you must open the door. All Rights Reserved Page 17 of 18